It ain't Disneyland...

BN University wins... a trip to Omaha.

Actually, the College World Series is a lot of fun.

People come every year in their RVs. They crowd downtown restaurants and give the same basic interviews to the local news... "I love Omaha: we never expected it to be so nice here".

Have fun guys --- if I thought you'd be driving the 400 miles, I'd tell you where to stop to pee.

A good teaching day...

... in logic.

I'm shaking things up a bit in logic, mostly out of necessity.

This means that I have a little new prep to do -- and it's actually fun.

• I changed the first exam from being in-person to on-line. They're taking it this weekend -- and, it's all auto-graded -- YEA for me!
• We have a document camera in our classroom. I realized that if I did some class prep, essentially preparing flashcards, we could cover some material quickly. It worked.
• I also realized that my previous students didn't understand why some of the rules worked the way they did -- so, they kept making the same stupid mistakes over and over again.

I really like this aspect of summer teaching - mostly because it lets me do experiments without having to deal with crappy results over multiple sections or over a full semester. Also, a pal of mine observed that summer students are generally better, and I agree. They're more motivated, more focused and generally better prepared than my day students during the year.

Also, in the summer the building is nice and quiet -- and the parking is excellent!

On the spot, in class, I figured out a good way to prove to them why the rules work.

I think there's a date....

... June 10 --

I'll have my shot at becoming Dr ItPF.

Scary.

Exciting.

The END of the dissertation odyssey.

Who'd have thought it might actually happen.

Weird.

Oh no you don't....

... add my logic class after the second class meeting, then e-mail me and tell me you won't be there on the third class meeting as well.

Sadly (and stupidly) our system lets them do this for summer courses.

That does not mean that I have to re-teach everything I've taught so far this week -- in my office -- so that someone who can't get registered (or contact me) in a timely manner can pass the exam the class will be taking over the weekend.

Also, I will not set this student up for failure from the start - nor will I waste the first two class meetings (almost the equivalent of two FULL semester weeks) because our system permits this. Summer semesters are compact enough without blowing off two class meetings.

I've identified the first KFAP

KFAP (kid from another planet), claims he ran into "a little car trouble and some traffic" making it back from Chicago -- so he missed class yesterday.

My class is at 7:45 -- Chicago is 6-8 hours away... really, if traffic was part of the equation, you cut it too close KFAP.

It was kind of satisfying to tell KFAP that he had a lot of reading (that those who showed up on Monday got a head start on understanding), a reading quiz, a syllabus quiz and a discussion post to do -- by tomorrow.

We'll see if KFAP does it.... I'm not going to hold my breath.

I don't want to jinx it...

... but, I could have a defense date by the end of June...

wow.

Soem thoughts on partial on-line teaching...

I'm rather new to teaching on-line, at all... even partially on-line.

About a year ago I was figuring out how our on-line course management system works... yea, I'm slow.

In that year, I've picked up many good bits of advice from the internets ---so, thanks!

A few of them are:

• In the discussion section, make a "class talk" section, so they can ask class questions and they often answer themselves.
• Using the on-line grade book is helpful because it cuts down on the "what's my grade" questions... leaving only the KFAP (kids from another planet), who probably need to talk to you face to face anyway.
• They will have good discussions without me.
  
• Include your make-up period in the on-line testing period -- and try to give a class period for them to take exams. My CC students are often very tightly scheduled, so if they can use the time they'd otherwise drive to school, go to class etc.. to take the on-line exam, they will -- AND, probably most important, you can deflect the "I didn't have time to do the exam" excuse.
• The "course copy" function is wonderful -- I love it.
• Make friends with the instructional design / faculty tech support people. I'm really lucky to have two of them looking out for me -- and solving my vexing issues.
  

Some things I'm starting this summer --

• Content quizzes. After every subject they'll take a quiz on class content. This is in addition to the short reading quizzes they have before every new discussion/ reading assignment. Some of these content quizzes are essays (gasp), so I'll have to keep up with them.. but, they are quick to grade so it shouldn't be all that bad.
• Small, randomly selected, discussion groups. Each group posts on the same topic every week, then a discussant from that group synthesizes and posts the results for the whole class to see.

If they work, I'll keep doing them for the fall -- although, I'm going to think carefully about the stuff I have to grade... I'll have 150 students in three sections...